2020: Courts wrap up several high-profile cases

This year was a challenging one for the country’s courts, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown exacerbating the already burgeoning backlog of cases awaiting finalisation.

Nonetheless, a number of high-profile cases were closed.

In the late 1990s, former crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli and Mthembeni Mthunzi – also a former policeman – abducted Mdluli’s one-time lover, Tshidi Buthelezi, and her new partner, Oupa Ramogibe, dragged them to a police station and beat them up. Mdluli and Mthunzi were convicted of kidnapping, assault and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm last July and were eventually sentenced to an effective five years each in September.

The drawn-out case against activist Mcebo Dlamini, who was arrested during the #FeesMustFall protests, also came to an end this year. In March, Dlamini was convicted of public violence and sentenced to two years and six months in jail. The sentence was suspended for five years.

Belgian fugitive Jurgen Vandekeere was finally sentenced this year after seven years on the lam. Vandekeere raped and murdered local 20-year-old Chantelle Barnard in 2011. He was arrested in 2011 but fled after he was released on bail in 2013. He returned to the country and handed himself over this year. In September, he was convicted and is serving a life term.

Also in September, the Vanderbijlpark teacher behind the kidnapping of then six-year-old Amy’Leigh de Jager last year was jailed. The kidnapping took place outside De Jager’s school. After a failed ransom demand, De Jager was dropped on a side road unharmed and was found by two passers-by who took her to the police station. Tharina Human, a teacher at De Jager’s school and a friend of her family, and three others were arrested and in September pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and extortion. They were sentenced to between five and 10 years each.

In June, rapper Pitch Black Afro, whose real name is Thulani Ngcobo, was convicted of culpable homicide after the death of his wife, Catherine Modisane, and sentenced to 10 years in jail, with five suspended. Modisane was found dead on New Year’s eve in 2018. She died of blunt force trauma to the head after a fight with Ngcobo.

In October, former VBS chief financial officer Philip Truter pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, corruption, racketeering, theft and money laundering in accordance with a deal he struck with the state. Truter, who admitted to receiving R5 million in loot, got seven years in prison.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.